328 THE BIRD WATCHER 
Mercutio’s wound fogggne—‘’tis enough, ’twill serve.” 
Continuing with more caution, I got down, and was 
on the promontory behind the “chevaux de frise” 
I had lately erected, before the tide was yet much 
over the rock. It would have floated off an ordinary 
seal perhaps, but this vast creature lay there, swayed 
to and fro by the waves, like a buoy, but still firmly 
anchored—“ built,” as one might say, “upon the 
rock.” 
At once, upon getting down, I saw that this was 
my bottle-nosed animal, and, also, that I had been 
entirely mistaken about his skin. On the lower 
side, where it was wet, this looked the same that it 
had ever done, as naked as that of the hippopotamus ; 
but the other side, which was quite dry, showed a 
fur which seemed to be rather thick than otherwise, 
and of a brownish colour, but so light that it looked 
almost silvery. The head, whenever the creature 
looked round—for his burly back was turned to 
me—with the nose and muzzle, seemed much more 
elongated than in the common seal; it much re- 
sembled, in fact, that of the polar bear—quite remark- 
ably so, I thought, when turned profile. Now, 
however, I could see nothing very peculiar about 
the nose, nothing to justify the allusion to it 
contained in the local name—which, however, I have 
only heard once. The bottle-nosed seal—for there 1s 
such a species—of course he is not, though, at first, 
in my want of all learned equipment, | thought he 
might be. What seal he is, scientifically, 1 know not, 
